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Jill Gage to Become Next Custodian of the Wing Foundation

Jill Gage, along with a portrait of John M. Wing.

May 2016

The Newberry is pleased to announce that Jill Gage, Reference Librarian and Bibliographer for British Literature and History at the Newberry, has been appointed Custodian of the John M. Wing Foundation on the History of Printing. She succeeds Paul Gehl, who will retire May 31 after serving 29 years as Wing custodian. Gage will continue to build the Newberry’s collection of British literature and history, retaining her existing role as bibliographer while acceding to this new one. She will officially assume the Wing custodianship June 6.

Gage received her PhD in English literature from the University of London in 2015. She holds a BA and MA in English Literature from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an MS in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She joined the Newberry staff in 2004.

The history of printing is one of Gage’s longstanding areas of research and teaching. In fact, it was this subject area that first brought her to the Newberry, as a master’s student studying extra-illustration, the practice of annotating books with engravings, advertisements, and other plates and found objects. John M. Wing, the eccentric publisher who provided the endowment for the Wing Foundation, was an avid practitioner of extra-illustration. (The thesis Gage completed as an MA student can be consulted on the open shelving of the Newberry’s Special Collections Reading Room.)

In addition to contributing to the Oxford Companion to the Book and The Newberry 125, Gage has curated a number of exhibitions at the Newberry, including Creating Shakespeare, opening in September.